Sprint has commented on their future with Android this week. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, told the media that Android is not (yet) good enough for the Sprint name. This certainly comes as a surprise to us as Sprint is one of the founding companies of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA). Android Community shared an unlocking video with their members and decided to hold a contest with 3 unlock codes as prizes in celebration of the event.
Rumors that Wal-Mart would soon carry the G1 in their stores spread like wildfire this week. Despite Wal-Mart claiming that they were only rumors, the story turned out to be true. In no time at all people spotted the G1 in Wal-Mart store displays. Motorola’s Co-CEO Sajay Jha stated on a Q3 earnings conference call that there will be no Android-powered handset released by them until the Christmas season. On October 30th residents of the United Kingdom were finally able to get their hands on the T-Mobile G1. The UK, however, got a few changes that the US did not receive; the G1 in the UK comes in either Black or White while the US only got the Black and Bronze version of the G1. Other differences in the UK release is the price, you can get the device overseas for free but you must commit to a 2 year agreement, also the G1 comes with a 2GB MicroSD card as opposed to the 1Gb that we received in the US.
A week ago Google sent out the RC28 update only to quickly recall it because of security flaws. A few days later Google sent out a new update (RC29) with an added security patch that supposedly fixes the browser security issues that were present. It appears that more and more of our users receive this update every day but the bulk of them have yet to receive it. The update process is very easy, all you must do is accept the update and let the phone do its thing. For those who are too impatient to wait, there is a way to update your G1 with a MicroSD card. However, this may cause you to lose your data and is not recommended. TechOn was brave enough to dissect the G1 the other day and reported that the roll ball is the same as the one in RIM’s Blackberry handsets. Aside from that, the inside of the G1 is white. We had no idea that the G1 is painted.
Android Market received several new applications this week, including the very first emulator to run on Android, Androidboy. This emulator comes with 10 games pre-loaded for your enjoyment. In other firsts for the Android Market we saw the first of what will be many Twitter applications. Twidroid is a simple Twitter client that allows you to post “twits” and photos to Twitter.com. China is getting so desperate to get their hands on the G1 that they are illegally importing them and paying unreasonably high prices to get the devices. Learning guitar comes to Android with the addition of Splashplay. This application brings learning how to play instruments to the mobile phone. In the future, Splashplay will include light panel releases for the keyboard/piano, drums, violin and many other instruments.
PocketFinder is a popular way to track your family or pets location using GPS. This can be especially useful for parents who often worry too much. China Mobile has reportedly started working with Lenovo on what will be their first Android-Powered handset that will be released between February and March of 2009. A revolutionary application called WhitePages released this week bringing real caller ID to Android. No more wondering who is calling when you do not have the number saved to your contacts. JOYity brings social multiplayer online mobile gaming to the real world. Users can play in one of 3 games that require you to interact with other players in real life.
